Maze' Toy!

You ye Got

.

„

.

Cupid strikes through a
popular television show
and cyberspace.

Julie Friedman and Mike Rioux met
through the Internet.

chat continued for another two hours.
By then, Friedman recalls, "my fingers
had tired of pounding away at the key-
board, answering his questions and
sharing stories back and forth. I offered
my phone number, and he called me
the next day.
By the next week, a date was
arranged at a restaurant in Wixom,
where Rioux lived at the time. Much to
their relief, the conversations flowed
just as much in person as they had via
the computer.
"It's funny how things like this just
fall in your lap," said Rioux. 'After dat-
ing for a year and a half, I knew that I
did not want to lose her and I wanted
to ask her to marry me in a way that
,,
was special to us.
Back at the computer, Rioux got
creative and sentimental. "I told Julie
there was a great new X-Files Web site
explaining the new season. On Sept.
22, when she opened the site, the first
screen read, 'Every now and then,
something strange happens and we

,,

CART WALD MAN
Special to the Jewish News

0

n a typical Sunday night
cruising around the Internet,
Julie Friedman looked onto
the screen and smiled to her-
self. The 32-year-old Farmington Hills
nanny was in the mood to chat. An
instant message request had just
popped onto her screen.
The person at the other end of
cyberspace certainly was not looking
for love. He wasn't even looking to
converse for long.
Mike Rioux had simply missed the
last few episodes of The X-Files televi-

sion show and wanted to find out the
subplot. Playing around on the Internet
on that same Sunday night last year,
Rioux typed in the keywords "X-Files"
and "Michigan." And America Online
connected him to Friedman.
Seconds after getting the instant
message flag, Friedman looked up
Rioux's personal profile through the
AOL people connector before respond-
ing. "It said he was single, Jewish, liked
X-Files, and lived in Michigan," said
Friedman. "From what I gathered, he
seemed to have a sense of humor, so I
thought to myself, 'Okay, I will talk to
him for a minute.'"
Yet after Rioux got his answers, the

can't explain it. The answer to one
question holds the power to change our
lives and forever set our history on a
course of untold bliss.'"
As Julie clicked on the icon below
that read, "Fate-Destiny-Truth," she
realized this was not an X-Files Web site
but a marriage proposal from Mike.
The following screen read, "Julie, Will
you marry Me?" She typed in, "Yes!"
Recently, Rioux took a job as a
territory sales manager for Stanley
Works in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., which
means that this cyberspace couple
will need to relocate. Over the next
year, Friedman will remain here to
plan their fall 2000 wedding at
Temple Israel and continue her 10-
year job as nanny to the family of
television news anchor Sherry
Margolis, Ann Landers columnist Jeff
Zaslow, and their children, Jordan,
Alexandra and Eden.
Until they are together next year,
both Friedman and Rioux assume there
will be many more online chats. O

11/1J,

1999

53